The Magic Skin (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Magic Skin"Your hat, sir, if you please?" a thin, querulous voice called out. A little old man, crouching in the darkness behind a railing, suddenly rose and exhibited his features, carved after a mean design.As you enter a gaming-house the law despoils you of your hat at the outset. Is it by way, of a parable, a divine revelation? Or by exacting some pledge or other, is not an infernal compact implied? Is it done to compel you to preserve a respectful demeanor towards those who are about to gain money of you? Or must the detective, who squats in our social sewers, know the name of your hatter, or your own, if you happen to have written it on the lining inside? Or, after all, is the measurement of your skull required for the compilation of statistics as to the cerebral capacity of gamblers? The executive is absolutely silent on this point. But be sure of this, that though you have scarcely taken a step towards the tables, your hat no more belongs to you now than you belong to yourself. Play possesses you, your fortune, your cap, your cane, your cloak.As you go out, it will be made clear to you, by a savage irony, that Play has yet spared you something, since your property is returned. For all that, if you bring a new hat with you, you will have to pay for the knowledge that a special costume is needed for a gambler.The evident astonishment with which the young man took a numbered tally in exchange for his hat, which was fortunately somewhat rubbed at the brim, showed clearly enough that his mind was yet untainted; and the little old man, who had wallowed from his youth up in the furious pleasures of a gambler's life, cast a dull, indifferent glance over him, in which a philosopher might have seen wretchedness lying in the hospital, the vagrant lives of ruined folk, inquests on numberless suicides, life-long penal servitude and transportations to Guazacoalco.His pallid, lengthy visage appeared like a haggard embodiment of the passion reduced to its simplest terms. There were traces of past anguish in its wrinkles.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.Эта книга будет изготовлена в соответствии с Вашим заказом по технологии Print-on-Demand компанией ООО «Книга по Требованию». Print-on-Demand - это технология печати книг по Вашему заказу на цифровом типографском оборудовании. Книга, произведенная по технологии Print-on-Demand (POD) представляет собой классическую печатную книгу с соблюдением всех стандартов качества, от офсетной бумаги и плотного картона до качественного клея, используемого при изготовлении. Черно-белая текстовая или полноцветная иллюстрированная книга (в зависимости от исходного файла, подготовленного к печати) может быть изготовлена в разных вариантах: - в мягкой обложке (Клеевое Бесшвейное Скрепление); - скрепление скобой (для книг с небольшим количеством страниц); - в твердом переплете с клееным текстовым блоком; Материалы, используемые при производстве книги: - бумага текстового блока - офсетная (белая или кремовая) 80 г/м2 - мягкая обложка - бумага мелованная 250 г/м2; - ламинация обложки - матовая или глянцевая; - твердый переплет - картон 2 мм, каптал, белые форзацы, прямой корешок - сверхпрочный полимерный клей; - каждая книга упакована в термопленку. Каждый заказ обрабатывается в индивидуальном порядке: каждой книге, напечатанной по технологии Print-on-Demand, присваивается уникальный номер.